Overview

With a sharp sense of justice and wit, Susan J. Douglas raises the alarm about ageist attacks against women, whether pushed out of jobs, caricatured in the media, or preyed upon by the anti-aging industry. Douglas celebrates women defying stereotypes and embracing activism and puts forward a plan for a brighter future for all women. Entertaining and smart, you’ll want to share this book with your best friend.

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Susan Douglas's hilarious and deeply intelligent book chronicles how older women are rejecting sexist ageism. Required reading for those of us who are 50 or older -and everyone who (with any luck) someday will be. An informative and sharp call to arms, In Our Prime just may help bring the revolution we all need. -- Liza Featherstone, author of Divining Desire Susan Douglas' fierce, funny, engaging book sent me off to Google Maggie Kuhn, the over-fifty warrior who challenged negative ideas about older women at the dawn of Second Wave feminism. Douglas thinks older women are due to rise up again-arm in arm with sisters across the generational divide-and I am ready to storm the barricades with them. I was alarmed by Douglas' startling yet non-hyperbolic depictions of gendered ageism-as well as real threats to Medicare and Social Security. In Our Prime is not just for older women-or even exclusively women. In droll, lively, exhaustively documented prose, it exposes the threat that market fundamentalism poses to people across the economic spectrum. -- M. G. Lord, author of The Accidental Feminist Women of all ages, unite! In Our Prime is a skilled and stirring call for young and old to confront the 'double helix of ageism and sexism that still...courses through our culture' and complete the unfinished business of the women's movement. Susan J. Douglas's blueprint for 'bridge feminism' offers vision, strategies, and tools for the struggle. We are indeed in our prime-at any age-and this is our time. -- Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism Susan J. Douglas has managed to combine an unstinting but often hilarious media critique with a social analysis of feminism that is as astute as it is inspirational. There's simply no other feminist writer who is able to take our culture apart with such good humor. -- Susan Bordo, author of The Destruction of Hillary Clinton In this rollicking, riveting celebration of lifespan feminism, Douglas critiques the gendered ageism of Big Pharma, cosmetics-pushers, and Hollywood, savages mansplaining statistics, and urges boomer women to take to the barricades to safeguard the nation's social and financial safety net. In Our Prime is personal, powerful, and persuasive. A must-read. -- Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director, Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania Today's older women are energetic, active and involved with life way beyond grandkids and gardening. The majority say they are feminists. Yet society ignores us, when it isn't selling us face cream and face lifts. Susan J. Douglas is here to rouse us and put our issues front and center in today's revitalized women's movement. More power to her! Read this book, ladies, and let's get very, very busy. -- Katha Pollitt, author of Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights Smart, savvy, and informed, Douglas is the perfect guide for women who are sick of the rampant sexism and ageism in our society and are ready to do something about it. -- Library Journal Douglas, a master at powerfully marshaling anecdotes, statistics, and words, asks women to push back and support each other. -- Booklist With humor and aplomb, Douglas makes a convincing case for how to end the war on older women and reinvent what aging can mean. -- Priscilla Kipp - BookPage In Our Prime is a masterful takedown of gendered ageism. -- Molly Sprayregen - Associated Press A feminist intervention, a call to reclaim women's aging as a social movement and harness their voices, experience, and wisdom toward social change...forward-thinking and hopeful. -- Andi Zeisler - Bitch Media [It is] impossible to deny the political, economic and cultural potential of what Douglas describes as an incipient demographic revolution...Douglas has performed a valuable service. -- Leslie Bennets - New York Times

A clarion call for older women to 'rip off the invisibility cloak' and reinvent the world they live in so it stops cheating them. -- Leslie Bennetts - New York Times Book Review A masterful takedown of gendered ageism. -- Molly Sprayregen - Associated Press A feminist intervention... to reclaim women's aging as a social movement and harness their voices, experience, and wisdom toward social change. -- Andi Zeisler - Bitch magazine Read this book, ladies, and let's get very, very busy. -- Katha Pollitt, author of Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights A skilled and stirring call... to confront the 'double helix of ageism and sexism.' -- Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism In Our Prime is a highly evocative-and necessary-work that exposes the invasive roots of ageism in today's world. A call-to-action for wise women of all ages, it demands that no woman be viewed as an irrelevant 'has-been.' With unassailable documentation, Douglas invites women into an honest, stark review of historical and current issues that affect every female's optimal well-being. Douglas illuminates the need for today's women to intensify their engagement in creating standards that rise above sexism and ageism. -- Carla Marie Manly, PhD, author of Aging Joyfully Susan Douglas's fierce, funny, engaging book sent me off to Google Maggie Kuhn, the over-fifty warrior who challenged negative ideas about older women at the dawn of Second Wave feminism. Douglas thinks older women are due to rise up again-arm in arm with sisters across the generational divide-and I am ready to storm the barricades with them. I was alarmed by Douglas's startling-yet-nonhyperbolic depictions of gendered ageism-as well as real threats to Medicare and Social Security. In Our Prime is not just for older women-or exclusively for women. In droll, lively, exhaustively documented prose, it exposes the threat that market fundamentalism poses to people across the economic spectrum. -- M. G. Lord, author of The Accidental Feminist and Forever Barbie Susan J. Douglas's hilarious and deeply intelligent book chronicles how older women are rejecting sexist ageism. Required reading for those of us who are fifty or older-and everyone who (with any luck) someday will be. An informative and sharp call to arms, In Our Prime just may help bring the revolution we all need. -- Liza Featherstone, author of Divining Desire

Susan J. Douglas's hilarious and deeply intelligent book chronicles how older women are rejecting sexist ageism. Required reading for those of us who are fifty or older-and everyone who (with any luck) someday will be. An informative and sharp call to arms, In Our Prime just may help bring the revolution we all need. -- Liza Featherstone, author of Divining Desire Susan Douglas's fierce, funny, engaging book sent me off to Google Maggie Kuhn, the over-fifty warrior who challenged negative ideas about older women at the dawn of Second Wave feminism. Douglas thinks older women are due to rise up again-arm in arm with sisters across the generational divide-and I am ready to storm the barricades with them. I was alarmed by Douglas's startling-yet-nonhyperbolic depictions of gendered ageism-as well as real threats to Medicare and Social Security. In Our Prime is not just for older women-or exclusively for women. In droll, lively, exhaustively documented prose, it exposes the threat that market fundamentalism poses to people across the economic spectrum. -- M. G. Lord, author of The Accidental Feminist and Forever Barbie In Our Prime is a highly evocative-and necessary-work that exposes the invasive roots of ageism in today's world. A call-to-action for wise women of all ages, it demands that no woman be viewed as an irrelevant 'has-been.' With unassailable documentation, Douglas invites women into an honest, stark review of historical and current issues that affect every female's optimal well-being. Douglas illuminates the need for today's women to intensify their engagement in creating standards that rise above sexism and ageism. -- Carla Marie Manly, PhD, author of Aging Joyfully A skilled and stirring call... to confront the 'double helix of ageism and sexism.' -- Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism Read this book, ladies, and let's get very, very busy. -- Katha Pollitt, author of Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights A feminist intervention... to reclaim women's aging as a social movement and harness their voices, experience, and wisdom toward social change. -- Andi Zeisler - Bitch magazine A masterful takedown of gendered ageism. -- Molly Sprayregen - Associated Press A clarion call for older women to 'rip off the invisibility cloak' and reinvent the world they live in so it stops cheating them. -- Leslie Bennetts - New York Times Book Review

Author Information

Susan J. Douglas is Catherine Neafie Kellogg Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan. The author most recently of In Our Prime as well as the groundbreaking works Where the Girls Are, The Rise of Enlightened Sexism, and The Mommy Myth, she lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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